Not Asking for Much

She was giggling for a LONG while and there was no way she could have told me to stop. Honest.

I held her upside-down and danced my fingers up and down her ribs, barely touching her skin as she undeniably laughed herself into delusion.

You know when a kid trusts you? When they let you tickle them. They'll giggle and try to work themselves away from you somehow but they keep coming back knowing tickling will be the price they pay and they're all too willing to cough up the change.

Today, tho, was my time to pay.

I tickled for the appropriate amount of time considering her upside-down predicament but when I set her on her feet she was angry. Angry enough to swing at me before she ran, crying, from the room.

I looked to her mom, to her brother and their faces offered no answers.

You know when a kid trusts you because they'll use your back or your leg or any part of you closest to the floor as a pillow or a balance beam. They can trust you because they understand you're not going to move at the last second and cause them to end up on the floor.

It's a valuable trust that you think could never be betrayed.

I've never been a seven year old girl.

She was stoked that she didn't have to wake up a dozen times in the night to ensure she didn't wet the bed. She was excited that she understood math and social studies as well as she did and - AND - she was learning yoga poses and realizing how well they helped her with flexibility and gymnastics.

She felt like she was growing up and ready for the next set of challenges life would throw her way and then she wants to prove she can rough house with the best of them.

And her dad tickles her until she pees her pants.

She forgave me but the lesson still applies: How often were we ready for the next challenge but ended up humbled by something we thought we were already past?

The lesson, I realized, is that lessons have to be learned however they need to be learned and sometimes that takes several tests from several angles. The ratio of attempts to successes are going to depend solely on the individual in question and you can only determine so much of a person's capability on one instance of success or failure.

You don't know what you don't know and you can't prepare for anything you're not aware of.

Rules is rules.